Many games of chance utilize randomly drawn balls or other articles in the play of the game. For example, in bingo-type games, players are issued cards having a series of printed symbols which are selected from a large set of available symbols. Each of the symbols from the large set of symbols is also printed on a ball. The game operator randomly draws balls from a mixer and the players play the game by marking each match between a drawn symbol and a symbol on their playing card. The winning player is the first to achieve a certain pattern of matched symbols on their playing card.
Bingo-type games may be played with an operator manually drawing balls from a mixer and announcing the symbol printed on the drawn ball. This manual drawing process is slow and presents an opportunity for tampering with the outcome of the game. Also manually announcing the drawn symbols may lead to errors in the play of the game.
Automated ball drawing devices have been proposed to avoid some of the problems associated with manually drawing balls for the play of bingo-type games. These automated ball drawing devices included a ball drawing component and an identifying component for identifying the symbols printed on each drawn ball. These prior automated ball drawing devices tend to be slow and require expensive and unreliable identification components.